Federal prosecutors won the first convictions in their sprawling probe of police misconduct in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, as a jury Thursday found three New Orleans police officers guilty in a high-stakes case accusing them of killing Henry Glover, burning his body and fashioning an elaborate cover-up that kept the truth hidden for four years.

The jury of five men and seven women, however, acquitted two officers completely. The jury also cleared two of the defendants of charges that they beat two men who tried to help Glover after he was shot by former officer David Warren behind an Algiers strip mall on Sept. 2, 2005.

Warren was convicted of a civil-rights violation in Glover's death, meaning jurors found that he was not justified in firing his personal assault rifle at Glover. But in their consideration of another charge -- using a firearm in a crime of violence -- jurors found that Warren's shooting of Glover met the definition of manslaughter rather than murder. The finding will almost certainly reduce the amount of prison time Warren faces.

Officer Greg McRae was convicted on four counts related to his incineration of Glover's body in the car of William Tanner, a good Samaritan who tried to help the wounded man as he lay bleeding on an Algiers street. From the beginning of the trial, McRae took sole responsibility for the burning of the car, saying co-defendant Lt. Dwayne Scheuermann did not know of his intentions before he tossed a flare into the vehicle. The jury apparently believed this assertion, acquitting Scheuermann of all charges.

The two men were both cleared of beating Tanner and Edward King, Glover's brother, after they drove to the school taken over by Scheuermann and McRae's unit during the storm. King did not testify in the trial, an absence defense attorneys seized on in closing arguments.

The jury split in its consideration of the alleged cover-up of Glover's death. Prosecutors tried to build a case that Lt. Robert Italiano, who is now retired, willfully ignored the true circumstances of the shooting, starting from the day Warren fired his weapon. But Italiano was acquitted, cleared both of participating in the writing of a false report about Glover's death and of lying to federal agents about what he knew.

Jurors made a different finding for Lt. Travis McCabe, concluding he did write a report containing misleading statements about Warren's weapon discharge. McCabe was also convicted of lying to an FBI agent and to the federal grand jury.

Immediately after the verdicts were read, prosecutor Jared Fishman, an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, asked that McRae and McCabe, who have been free on bond, be taken into custody. U.S. District Judge Lance Africk declined to rule on the request right away, scheduling a bond hearing for this morning.

Lt. Travis McCabe, left, was convicted of writing a false police report about the incident and lying to federal investigators. Officer Greg McRae, center, was convicted of burning Henry Glover's body in a car. The jury convicted former officer David Warren, right, for shooting Glover, finding he was responsible for the man's death and that he committed manslaughter.

The Glover case is one of nine civil rights investigations into the New Orleans Police Department started by the FBI and Justice Department in recent years, most of which involve police conduct in the chaotic post-Katrina period. Ten New Orleans police officers face pending charges in three separate cases, including the well-publicized Danziger Bridge shooting two days after Glover was shot. Five former New Orleans police officers have pleaded guilty in a cover-up of that incident, in which two men were killed and four people injured.

Federal investigators began looking into Glover's death in early 2009, after an article about the mystery of his charred remains found on the Algiers levee was published in The Nation magazine.

Glover Family Reacts to VerdictsHenry Glover's aunt and community activist Malcolm Suber react to verdicts in the case against five New Orleans police officers charged with his murder and subsequent cover-up in the days after Hurricane Katrina.

After the verdict on Thursday night, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said the case and the verdict should be viewed as a victory for honest police officers.

"There are men and women in that police department who honor the badge every day and every night, and they sweat and they strain, and they work for too little money and they don't see their families enough, and they risk and sometimes give their lives," Letten said. "This is a win for them, too. This case is not about departments; it's about individuals who thought they were above the law and weren't."

And while defense attorneys tried to frame the actions of the officers as much as possible against the backdrop of the chaos after Katrina, Letten said the verdict showed that jurors did not believe the storm was a blanket excuse.

"These individuals who maintained that they were somehow were acting in response to stress -- I think the jury rejected that tonight," he said.

NOPD Superintendent Ronal Serpas, who slipped into the courtroom just before the verdict was read, declined to comment on his next steps, saying his administration will address questions today.

Attorneys for the convicted officers expressed dismay at the verdict. Julian Murray, who represented Warren, said his client was "more concerned about his wife and family than himself."

"He's a good man who tried to help this city. ... I don't think people understand the split-second decisions police officers have to make," Murray said.

While Murray acknowledged that Warren faces a potential life sentence, he noted that Africk has wide discretion in what his client will receive.

Former U.S. Attorney Harry Rosenberg said although the civil-rights charge on which Warren was convicted comes with a possible life sentence, the jury's finding of manslaughter in the other count likely means that Africk will impose a lower sentence. Warren could still serve several decades in prison, he said.

Retired Lt. Robert Italiano, left, and Lt. Dwayne Scheuermann were completely acquitted in the burning and cover-up.

All five defendants took the stand during the trial, beginning with Warren, who testified that he feared for his life when two men ran towards the strip mall he was guarding with a partner. The men, Glover and his friend Bernard Calloway, roared into the back parking lot in a pickup truck. They jumped out of the vehicle and ran toward an unlocked gate on the ground floor to the mall.

Spotting an object in Glover's hand that he said he perceived as a weapon, Warren aimed his rifle and fired, he testified. Warren testified he believed he missed the man he shot at, a perspective later captured in the short report written about the incident.

But prosecutors presented a very different picture of the shooting, describing Warren as a gun nut who couldn't wait to fire the most expensive rifle in his large arsenal, a Swiss-made assault rifle that cost roughly $7,500. Warren fired at Glover as he was facing away, they asserted.

Calloway testified that just before he heard the "pop" of a gunshot, Glover had been leaning up against the truck, lighting a cigarette. Warren's partner that day, officer Linda Howard, testified that Warren fired after the men began running away, startled by his scream for them to "get out."

Struck by a bullet, Glover ran away from the strip mall, collapsing in the street less than 100 yards away. His brother, King, flagged down a nearby motorist, Tanner, who agreed to help get Glover medical attention. Along with Calloway, the men put Glover into the backseat of Tanner's car. Reasoning that it would take too long to get to the nearest hospital, Tanner drove Glover to a nearby school, Paul B. Habans Elementary School, where the NOPD's Special Operations Division had set up camp.

There, Tanner and Calloway testified that the officers handcuffed them and accused them of looting. The officers offered no help for Glover, who pictures show was bleeding in the back of the car, perhaps dead.

Tanner accused two officers, Scheuermann and McRae, of beating him and King. His testimony was echoed by a police officer, Jeffrey Sandoz, who said he also saw his colleagues beat two men. However, Sandoz, who was given immunity for his testimony, admitted he initially lied about the beating to a federal grand jury. King, meanwhile, did not testify.

McRae acknowledged driving Tanner's Malibu to the levee and burning it. He said he parked the car on the batture of the levee, got out and tossed a lit flare into the vehicle.

Scheuermann followed McRae to the levee in a pickup. After throwing the flare, McRae testified that he walked up toward Scheuermann, who was parked atop the levee, but turned back to the car because it had not caught fire. To ventilate the car better, he fired one shot with his department-issued handgun into the back of the windshield, he said. The car then burst into flames.

Frank DeSalvo, McRae's attorney, said while his client admitted to burning the car, he didn't acknowledge any ill intent. McRae said he burned the car because in the days after the storm he had been so disturbed by seeing dead bodies.

"We admitted he burned the car because that's what he did. What we didn't admit was that he intended to violate anybody's civil rights," DeSalvo said. "He just did it because of the circumstances and how he was feeling at the time."

But DeSalvo added that his client got some satisfaction in telling his story and in helping Scheuermann get acquitted.

Michael Small, an attorney for McCabe, said he would comment about his client's conviction at the bond hearing today.

McCabe was accused of helping cover up what happened to Glover by authoring a false report. During the trial, McCabe testified that he helped Sgt. Purnella Simmons, the only supervisor to respond to the Warren shooting scene, write the report, at her request. Simmons denied working with McCabe on the document.

Throughout the trial, McCabe was the least-discussed defendant. He wasn't at any of the scenes on Sept. 2, 2005, but became involved when Simmons was directed to write a report in early December 2005.

The evidence against McCabe was largely his own statements, both to FBI agent Ashley Johnson and before a federal grand jury. The tape of his grand jury appearance was played at trial.

Although the indictment accused McCabe of working with Italiano on the document, jurors cleared Italiano of any wrongdoing. Although he signed the report, he testified he didn't remember the four-year-old document until after federal investigators asked about it in the spring of 2009.

Italiano's attorney, Steven Lemoine, said he was "immensely relieved" by the verdict.

"I know Bobby and his family really well and I have a strong appreciation for who he is, and who his family is," Lemoine said.

Simmons, the key witness in the case against both McCabe and Italiano, testified that Italiano was present at the Habans school after Glover was brought in. She also said she told the supervisor that Howard did not believe the shooting was proper.

Italiano testified he didn't know enough about what happened that day to connect the dots between Warren firing his weapon -- which Italiano believed was a miss -- and the dead man who turned up at the school.

Italiano did assign Simmons to write a report about Warren firing his weapon in late December. Her report did not contain her full suspicions that Warren had likely hit a man, but it did contain Howard's assertion the shooting was not proper, she testified.

But Simmons testified that after federal investigators began looking into the case, she discovered that the report filed into NOPD records was not what she wrote.

Simmons testified her report was changed, deleting the part about Howard not agreeing with the shooting and adding language justifying the shooting.

Simmons, who retired this week from the NOPD, admitted she initially lied about this fact to the federal grand jury, but testified at trial that she quickly took back her lies and returned to tell the truth.

Although Simmons has left the force, other officers who acknowledged lying to federal investigators pose a possible disciplinary problem for NOPD leaders to consider.

Other officers on the stand acknowledged conduct that could result in an administrative NOPD investigation, such as Lt. Joseph Meisch, who said he saw McRae and Scheuermann run away from the car on the levee and later saw the remains of the human body inside, but did nothing about it.

It is unclear whether the department will take action against Scheuermann, who during the trial testified he saw McRae burn the car. He acknowledged that he never wrote up his subordinate in a report or conducted any further probe.

On Thursday evening, Scheuermann's lawyer focused not on any possible administrative consequences for his client, but on his dedication to the job.

"He's a police officer for the city of New Orleans," Kearney said. "He'll be at work tomorrow doing what he does and what he's always done."

Henry Glover Trial analysis videoTimes-Picayune City Editor Gordon Russell and Loyola law professor Dane Ciolino discuss the verdicts in the Henry Glover murder trial and how the 'Katrina defense' played out in this video.

Staff writers Brendan McCarthy and Michelle Krupa contributed to this story. Laura Maggi can be reached at lmaggi@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3316.